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Rebuilding livelihoods and maintaining peace: clay-brick making in Sri Lanka
Mr Pakimthambe is a clay brick maker in Sammantharai villae on the tsunami-hit coast of Sri Lanka. With a wife and 5 children to support, it is not a lucrative business, but thanks to funding from DFID he has had a considerable boost in income since the tsunami.
Mr Pakimthambe has been helped by a £300,000 livelihood restoration project,
which is funded by DFID and run by the non-governmental organisation (NGO)
MercyCorps. He was previously renting a
site from a brick factory, but had lost his job as the local clay supply ran
out. To kick start his own business, he was given land and an initial supply of
clay.
He also received a proper shelter, which enable him to work and store bricks throughout the rainy season. He says "I also save money because I don't have to keep replacing that old thatched roof, which always got burnt by the brick fire." Now after 3 months his business is self sustaining.
How do you make a brick?
The clay is pressed into a dampened brick mould, and then pushed out onto the levelled ground to dry. The bricks are then burnt using a fire of rice husks, which are waste product from rice production.
Mr Pakimathambe's 3-man team is now able to produce more bricks, with more production and storage space. And with post-tsunami reconstruction going on all around, sales are up.
"Before, we'd fill our store with a load of 2,000 bricks each week, and then we'd have to stop work for a week while we tried to sell the bricks to make space. Now we have more storage space, but the bricks are selling immediately, so there are no gaps in production." Last year he was earning about 2000 rupees (£11) a fortnight – now he is earning 2,000 rupees every week.
War – the forgotten disaster
Mr Pakinthambe was not affected by the tsunami, as his home is some distance inland. He has been living in this area for 10 years, since he was forced to move by the civil war. He has been scraping out a living since then, living in a shack which was originally supposed to be temporary. But with this new improved income he will be able to save up to rebuild a proper life for himself and his family.
Why is tsunami money going to this man?
About three quarters of the people helped by this programme were affected by the war, and one quarter by the tsunami. The project is not just about livelihoods – it is an important tool to help maintain the precarious balance of peace in North and Eastern tsunami-affected districts.
The inland conflict-affected people have received very minimal support to rebuild their lives over the last 20 years, and rightly perceive that the generous help given to tsunami survivors is not fair. As massive international funds poured into coastal villages after the tsunami, local tension started to arise between neighbouring coastal and inland communities.
A major challenge for all agencies rebuilding after the tsunami has been to ensure programmes are conflict sensitive and to build peace and harmony to replace the underlying local tensions.
Key facts
- 200,000 people lost their main source of income because of the tsunami.
- The Government of Sri Lanka's goal is to restore household income to pre-tsunami levels by the end of 2006. So far, two thirds have now regained some sources of income, helped by 43 different NGOs and schemes ranging from equipment and grants to bank loans and credit schemes.
- The Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE, or Tamil Tigers), signed a ceasefire agreement in February 2002. Peace talks have had little progress since then and low-level violence and killings continue daily.
- The ongoing failure to reach a lasting peace settlement is the major contributor to poverty in Sri Lanka. Large numbers of people lost their homes or livelihoods during the 20 year civil war, and many fled to safer areas.
- This project: 75% of the beneficiaries were affected by the civil war in Sri Lanka, and 25% by the tsunami. This is helping to balance inequitable funding between neighbouring coastal and inland communities, which started to create local tension as massive funds poured in to the coast after the tsunami. The inland conflict-affected have received very minimal recovery support over the last 20 years. This project therefore supports the “guiding principles” of tsunami recovery through its conflict sensitivity.